A customer relationship management (CRM) system is generally a system to manage customer and client relationships, among other things. Applied properly, it can help improve the productivity of a sales team. Unfortunately, traditional CRM systems cannot meet all the needs of a modern sales team.
For example, because of the manner in which certain information is handled, certain information can be lost upon the occurrence of critical events. For example, in certain CRM systems when information for a prospective customer (e.g., lead) is converted into an actual customer (e.g., contact) critical information may be lost. For example, on average, 25-50% of the time companies using a traditional CRM system will convert their leads into contacts. But if a lead is not converted into an opportunity, certain CRM systems cannot connect or track revenue credit to a marketing campaign. This is a significant problem for revenue attribution to marketing campaigns. For example, in traditional CRM systems, the results of many leads in a system may not be well understood.
Also, traditional CRM systems do not keep a historical record of individual events such as responses to determine their effect on a final outcome such as a sale or lost sale. For example, traditional CRM systems may not provide fully descriptive information about the performance of a past marketing campaign. Certain CRM systems may only provide the current status of a lead and lose visibility into the status of the lead during post-campaign follow up, for example.
Traditional CRM systems also may not track whether a response is a new response or one from an existing list of responses. This can be important information to consider. For example, it may be important to know if the pool of contacts is fixed or if new prospects are being reached.